Agenda item

Catherine Briody, Victim and Offenders Support Manager, and Cathy Blair, Children’s Services were present for discussion of this item. Catherine Briody made a presentation to the Committee, copy interleaved.

 Councillor Paul Convery, Executive Member for Community Safety were also present.

During consideration of this item the following main points were made –

·         Concern was expressed that it appeared that younger children were becoming involved in criminal activity than was the case previously

·         It was noted that in August crime levels had fallen as the Police had allocated additional resources to the borough and arrests had been made

·         There were 3000 named individuals under 25 committing at least 8000 crimes

·         Levels of phone snatch reached unprecedented levels, around 300 per month

·         Serious youth violence increased  by 40% and knife crime by 16%

·         21% of all victims of crime were under the age of 25

·         There are 5 established gangs in the borough and three are ranked in the MPS top 20 for risk. The most arrested group are 15-17 year olds and there has been a significant increase in arrests of 10-14 year olds

·         In 2014/15 LBI ranked 30 out of 32 London Boroughs for highest crime levels

·         LBI had the worst youth reoffending rates in London

·         LBI is 81% higher than any other London Borough for theft person snatch offences

·         LBI has the highest first time entry rates in London and the second highest rate of young people in custody

·         LBI is currently offering early help and family support strategy in partnership with the voluntary sector, activities for young people, safer school plans in partnership with the Police, specialist services such as targeted youth support, the youth offending service, 18-24 Gangs Transition service, child sexual exploitation focus, integrated offender management, employment support, the Ben Kinsella exhibition about knife crime, targeted ASB campaign in hot spots across the borough, intelligence gathering and sharing and targeted communications aimed at young people

·         There is provision of Early Help to young people and their families to address the underlying risk factors that may lead to crime and anti – social behaviour and respond promptly at the first signs of an issue

·         There are sanctions, enforcement and reintegration that increase the chances of achieving positive behaviour and life changes for those that have committed crimes by delivering effective and high quality integrated offender management, youth offending service and 18-24 Gangs Transition service

·         There is community engagement that supports the wider community to be part of the solution, share responsibility, lead by example and actively make streets and outside spaces where everyone can go confidently about their daily life

·         There is now and integrated Gangs Team based at Tolpuddle Street Police station

·         The view was expressed that often a grouping of young people were referred to as a gang when this is not really the case, however it was stated this is the term used by the Police

·         A Member stated that there was a need to target bike theft as this is usually the method of snatching phones and to look at where people were selling the phones to

·         There is a need to use more community intelligence to identify mobile phone thieves and the link between these thefts and the drug trade and to encourage businesses, especially at hotspots to publicise action that the public should be taken to restrict mobile phone theft

·         Young people were aware that the Police will not chase them if they threw their crash helmets away because of safety concerns and this needed to be looked at. Councillor Convery stated that he would circulate details to the Committee on the action being taken in relation to moped theft

·         Reference was made to children in alternative provision and that because they did not attend for a full day it left them free to be on the streets and potentially get involved in criminal activity. It was felt that there was a need to look at this and to target families and preventative strategies for those at risk of offending

·         Members were informed that the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee were currently commencing a scrutiny review on alternative provision

·         The view was expressed that it would be useful to advertise the dangers of mobile phone theft on the information screens on estates and at stations and hotspots in the borough and in a variety of languages

·         A Member enquired whether was cross border work going on with other Boroughs and the Police and that this is essential to reducing crime

·         In response to a statement about the youth offer Councillor Convery responded that only a small percentage of the top 180 offenders actively engaged and there were detached youth workers working on estates and many of the youths committing crime would not attend a youth club. However it was difficult to engage in many cases

·         In response to a question as to whether it was felt that youth workers had the right skills to engage difficult young people at risk of offending it was stated that it was stated that a report could be submitted on the scale of work carried out and its effectiveness

·         In response to an enquiry as to what has gone wrong that has led to an increase in crime in the borough, the Executive Member Community Safety stated that he felt that before the recent deaths the Police had not concentrated resources in the same way as other boroughs and whilst there were warning signals these had not been acted upon

·         It was stated that it was felt that in the past 6 months all the agencies involved in crime reduction were working more effectively together and agreed on the measures take to reduce criminal activity

·         There is a need to establish an effective offender management plan in place when offenders come out of prison and diversionary services in place

·         It was felt that there was a need for children felt to be at risk of offending to be identified at an earlier age by primary schools and families given the necessary support and that the creation of Families First, which is an early intervention scheme could assist in this and every school now had a Families First representative. There was also a service which worked with adolescents who had more intense difficulties and parents but often by this stage it was too late so early intervention was vital

·         There is a need to share information between agencies

·         In response to a question the Executive Member Community Safety stated that whilst all agencies were now co-ordinating action it was difficult to ensure that this would solve the problem as the criminals involved often belonged to very chaotic families who had a history of criminal activity in the family. The children becoming involved were getting younger, 12/13 year olds

·         A Member expressed the view that a number of these children had witnessed domestic violence, traumatic situations which made them more likely to offend and responses need to be tailored

·         A member of the public stated that he was concerned that a lot of resources were being directed towards children and families who committed criminal behaviour, however children who were well behaved got nothing and this did not seem fair

·         The view was expressed that although this maybe the case it was important to recognise that often criminal activity resulted from trauma and abuse

·         The Executive Member Community Safety stated that it may be advisable if the Committee considered the new Youth Crime Strategy that had been agreed at the November meeting when the Borough Commander would be present to discuss it

RESOLVED:

That the Youth Crime strategy be discussed at Annual Crime Disorder meeting of the Committee in November